Hollywood icon Robert Redford died Tuesday morning at his home in Utah, according to his longtime publicist. He was 89.
Cindi Berger, CEO of the publicity firm Rogers & Cowan PMK, confirmed Redford’s death to CBS News in a statement. Berger said he died Tuesday in his sleep but did not provide a specific cause.
The golden-haired leading man became one of America’s biggest movie stars through his roles in classics like “A Bridge Too Far” and “All the President’s Men.” But Redford’s influence extended far beyond his acting career as he championed independent filmmaking and environmental causes for decades.
Charles Robert Redford Jr. was born Aug. 18, 1936, in the beachside community of Santa Monica, California, to Martha Hart and Charles Robert Redford Sr., a milkman turned oil company accountant. The younger Redford described himself as a poor student who was more interested in the arts and athletics.
Redford burst into the Hollywood stratosphere in the late 1960s, when he was paired with Paul Newman in the Western “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” Their charm playing lovable outlaws was undeniable, but it would be Redford’s nonchalance about his striking good looks that helped sell his characters — in comedies, dramas, and adventures — making him one of the leading box office draws of the 1970s and ’80s.
Redford would star in 16 features between 1969 and 1980, many of them hits that traded on his remarkable screen presence: “Downhill Racer,” “The Hot Rock,” “Jeremiah Johnson,” “The Candidate,” “The Way We Were” with Barbra Streisand, “The Great Gatsby” with Mia Farrow, “The Great Waldo Pepper,” “Three Days of the Condor” with Faye Dunaway, “The Electric Horseman” with Jane Fonda and “Brubaker.”
His greatest achievement as a filmmaker came when he moved behind the camera to direct “Ordinary People” in 1980. The family drama about grief and loss won the Academy Award for Best Picture and earned Redford the Oscar for Best Director.
Then, as founder of the Sundance Institute, he used his celebrity to help nurture independent films while promoting generations of young filmmakers. Since 1985, the institute has hosted the internationally famous Sundance Film Festival, which has been the launching pad for innumerable talents, including Quentin Tarantino, John Sayles, Christopher Nolan, and the Coen brothers. In 1989, the New York Times called Redford “a godfather to the American independent film movement.”
Redford was also a dedicated conservationist, moving to the mountains of Utah in 1961 and leading efforts to preserve the natural landscape of the state and the American West.
The actor received numerous honors throughout his career, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016. He won Academy Awards, BAFTA Awards, and Golden Globe Awards, along with the Cecil B. DeMille Award, Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award, and Kennedy Center Honors.
Redford had largely stepped back from acting in recent years, though he made a surprise cameo appearance in the television series “Dark Winds” earlier this year. His last major film role was in 2018’s “The Old Man & the Gun,” after which he announced his retirement from acting, though he later called that announcement “a mistake.”
He is survived by his wife, Sibylle Szaggars, and two children from a previous marriage to Lola Van Wagenen: Shauna Jean Redford and Amy Hart Redford.
Sadly, Redford and his first wife lost two sons: Scott Anthony Redford, born in 1959, died of sudden infant death syndrome; David James Redford died of cancer in 2020.
Yet, according to Redford, his fame was largely lucky.
“I was so much the last choice” for the role of the Sundance Kid, he told CBS’ “Sunday Morning” in 2006.
“They tried everything to keep me out of the picture because I wasn’t known, compared to Paul [Newman].” His performance changed all that, as well as the future of Hollywood.